Summary of Cesare Lombroso's Criminal Man - Book Report/Review Example

Cesare Lombrosos Criminal Man - Book Review Essay Humans from time immemorial have been indulging in various physical and mental activities, thereby advancing from a primitive race to an advanced one. Due to this advancement, people are endowed with various innovations and comforts, optimizing their lifestyle. However, these physical and mental activities have not only resulted in the development of the humans but also led to sizable destruction of human lives. Destruction in the sense, from the earlier times people have been wrecking and destroying many fellow lives for one reason or other. Thus, sizable number of people has committed and is committing various types of crimes from murder, physical assault, rape, etc, etc., earning the tag of criminals. There are various factors, perspectives and theories why a human may commit a crime and become a criminal. Experts in this specific field of criminology have researched crimes in various settings, and have come out and are still coming out with sizable number of theories regarding how humans turn into criminals, or may be how humans may be ‘endowed’ with the criminal intent. Endowed with the criminal intent means, there is a view that if humans are endowed with certain physical characteristics or features, they would exhibit criminal intent leading to crimes. One of the main proponents of this theory was Cesare Lombroso, a physician and criminologist who lived and worked in Italy and other European countries in 1800s till the first decade of 1900s. He was the founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology and is regarded in many circles as the Father of modern scientific criminology. In his times, Lombroso opposed the already established Classical School of criminology and its tenets. The Classical school stated that crime is a characteristic trait of human behavior and nature, and it happens influenced by the humans’ external environment and his/hers mental state. However, Lombroso incorporating concepts from Social Darwinism, physiognomy and psychiatry, came up with the theory of anthropological criminology. According to this theory, criminality or criminal intent is something that inherited by the alleged criminals, and so the “born criminal” can be identified by observing his/her physical features or ‘defects’. Although, this theory of judging a person by his/her physical characteristics was and may seem controversial, it provided key inputs to the field of criminology. Lombroso compiled all the tenets of his theory in a multi-edition book called Criminal Man, thus discussing his theory in a detailed manner with case-examples, illustrations, etc. The Criminal Man or Luomo deliquente was first published in 1876, and it went through five editions during the lifetime of Lombroso. In each of the edition, Lombroso incorporated and expanded on his theories about innate criminality, thereby coming up with a refined and at the same time a more ‘evolved’ theoretical perspectives about how physical features can be a clear ‘mirror’ of the criminal intent. All those five editions were in Italian, until it was translated and produced for the first time into English in 1911. It was produced shortly after his death by is daughter and was translated by an anonymous author. (Rafter, n. d.). However, it was considered as incomplete editions because it does not feature all or maximum content from the 5 editions prepared by Lombroso. Then in 1972, the same edition was reprinted by Patterson Smith and most of the content seems to have been authored by Lombrosos daughter, Gina Lombroso-Ferrero and not by her father. (Rafter, n. d.). The latest edition translated by Mary Gibson and Nicole Hahn Rafter is considered as an encompassing one, as it include materials from all the five editions. “In this new translation, Mary Gibson and Nicole Hahn Rafter bring together for the first time excerpts from all five editions in order to represent the development of Lombroso’s thought and his positivistic approach to understanding criminal behavior.” (Back Cover, Lombroso, 2006). In the book, Lombroso focuses on the key perspectives of how physical abnormalities can contribute to criminal intent in humans. Then, also how those physical defects and thereby the criminal intent arose in the criminals or humans due to their reversion to primitive type of men, who roamed the ancient earth as savages. That is, he was of the opinion that humans who exhibited defects in any parts of the body including both external and internal organs are more prone to commit crimes, than the humans who do not have those defects. According to Lombroso, these defects arose or evolved in humans and in a way de-evolved them. Due to this exhibition of aggressive, savage like behavior, Lombroso was of the opinion that criminals would normally suffer from biological “throwbacks” to the earliest savage era. “The behavior of these biological "throwbacks" will inevitably be contrary to the rules and expectations of modern civilized society.” (Mannheim, 1972, pg.247). After conducting studies based on postmortem examinations of the criminals’ bodies as well as other anthropometric studies on not only criminals, but also the insane and the normal individuals, Lombroso became very convinced about the “born criminal” perspective. He was able to find sizable common patterns regarding certain parts of the human body and how the humans with those specific parts or variations of those partss exhibited criminal intent. For example, Lombroso was of the opinion that humans will exhibit criminal intent and could commit a crime if the they a “sloping forehead, ears of unusual size, asymmetry of the face, prognathism, excessive length of arms, asymmetry of the cranium, and other "physical stigmata.” (“Cesare Lombroso”). Among these body parts, Lombroso in the book, Criminal Man first focuses on the skull of the few alleged criminals, and explains how some variations or defects in the skull could imply that those humans would could indulge in criminal behaviors. “Lombroso claimed in these books that in anatomical investigations the post mortem bodies of criminals revealed that criminals were physically different from normal people. He maintained that criminals have stigmata (Gr. Sign) and that these stigmata consist of abnormal dimensions of the skull” (Falk, n. d.). For example, Lombroso point out that if the cranial sutures or joins in the bones of the skull are open, they are more likely to commit crimes. “This was true of men like Villella, Pietrotto and Soldati, who were famous for committing crimes into old age and repeatedly eluded capture.” (Lombroso, 2006, pg.45). The other skull related defect which was pointed out by Lombroso as a sign of criminal intent is the median occipital fossetta or indentation at the base of the skull, which was exhibited by a brigand from Calabria, Italy. (Lombroso, 2006, pg.45).The other key physical trait which was pointed out by Lombroso in minimal measure in the book as a sign of criminal intent is the height of the criminals. According to him, Italian criminals were taller than normal Italian men, and it was particularly visible in many Italian regions. Lombroso states, compared with healthy men in the army, criminals appear to be taller than the average Italian especially in the Veneto, Umbria, Lombardy, Sicily and Calabria. (Lombroso, 2006, pg.50). However, Lombroso in the book did not provide the nature of the crimes, these tall criminals committed and also did not specify whether the tallness of these criminals gave them an advantage while committing those crimes. He then focuses on the facial features, and how some of the facial defects could also be the reason for a criminal to commit the crime. He stated, “Nearly all criminals have jug ears, thick hair, thin beards, pronounced sinuses, protruding chins, and broad cheekbones” (Lombroso 2006, pg.53). He validates this tenet by pointing out how the rapist by the name of Mingrat had a jug ears and enormous square jaws. In addition, he also points out, how the cruelest of all the Caesars, the Commodious, Nero and Tiberius all had jug ears and big foreheads. Focusing on the criminal women, Lombroso was of the opinion that female criminals would tend to be more masculine than normal woman, with their voices also showing masculine feel and sound. After focusing on the body parts, Lombroso was also of the opinion that use of tattoos, could also provide an insight into the criminals intent. That is, he points out how, “many members of the Camorra, a Neapolitan criminal organization, have a tarantula drawn on their arms.’ (Lombroso 2006, pg.89). According to Lombroso by studying these extensive tattoos of the criminals, one can get important clues about their mindset, key life events, their influences, etc, etc. “Tattoos can be useful to the legal system and forensic medicine; they may reveal an individuals identity, his origins and the important events of his/her life.” (Lombroso 2006, pg.60). Lombroso expands his research about the role of physical defects regarding the criminal intent, by stating how certain mental defects could also be a sign of criminal tendencies. For example, he was of the opinion that criminals would tend to exhibit heightened passion on aspects, which are out of normal. The criminals will exhibit passions for gambling, eating, sex and even revenge and most of the times indulge in these passions as an intermediate step to their predominate passion, which is orgy. According to Lombroso, “criminals could indulge in veritable orgies, in which they enjoy the jubilant, tumultuous, riotous and sensuous companionship with others.” (Lombroso 2006, pg.68). Focusing on the mental defects, Lombroso further adds that insanity is another mental defect which could be prevalent explicitly or in a subdued manner in the criminals, even leading to crimes. “There are cases in which madness is simply a criminal tendency, a lack of any sense of morality.” (Lombroso 2006, pg.83). He also focuses on the role of peoples races in shaping their criminal intent. According him, certain races, ethnicities, communities, etc., may have sizable number of criminals and so those individuals form the role models for next generation. “All it takes is the survival of one family descended from a wicked progenitor, and the whole place will be corrupted.” (Lombroso 2006, pg.90). They kind of inherit their livings and legacies, thus acting as the catalyst for the emergence of new criminals. These mental related perspectives of Lombroso particularly the crimes of passion and crimes influenced by social aspect of races, implies that his thoughts evolved from being entirely focused on physical defects to include mental and behavioral defects. That is, as discussed above, Lombroso’s initial postulations were based on the perspective that physical defects and not other personal, social and environmental factors could lead to criminal intent. However, from the starting of the Second edition and towards end of the fifth edition, there was a transition in the Lombroso’s perspective. “By the last edition of the book, he only regarded 35 percent of offenders as born criminals.” (Gabriel, 2008). This was further validated by the translators Mary Gibson and Nicole Hahn Rafter who mention in their introduction, that “Lombroso never saw born criminals as the only type of offenders but in fact understood crime as arising from the interplay of social and biological causes.” (Gabriel, 2008). That is, Lombroso started to accept the fact that not only the physical defects, but also unfavorable social environment can also lead to the ‘seeding’ and emergence of criminal intent among the individuals. In addition, the classifying of the criminals into more categories by Lombroso makes him adopt the above stance. Apart from the earliest perspective of born criminals, he further classified the criminals into criminaloids, insane criminals, occasional criminals, etc, etc., thus accepting how social factors could also play a major role. As this classification of criminals grew over time, so did “the weight of sociological factors in Lombrosos explanation of the causes of crime” (Gabriel, 2008). From this discussion of Lombroso’s thoughts regarding criminal intent in the book, Criminal Man, it can be assumed that the book works on more than one level. Firstly, the book provides the perspective of how physical characteristics of an individual can play a role in the evolution of criminal intent. Although, this perspective would seem controversial and has practical and logical loopholes, it opened up a new line of thinking regarding criminal behaviors, as sizable number of concepts put forward by Lombroso has validity. With the current criminological studies focusing on DNA profiling and other innovations to corner in on the suspects or criminals, this early work by Lombroso acted as a kind of path breaker. “Lombrosos ideas left an indelible mark on the fields of criminology and penology, not only in terms of his theories of criminality, but also in how he framed the problems of crime and sought to solve them.” (Gabriel, 2008). In addition, his work also provided good insights for the cultural historians, social scientists, etc. From the above focus of Criminal Man by Cesare Lombroso and the role of physical defects in the criminal intent and his transition of perspectives to include social factors, it is clear he has gradually shifted to social and psychological aspects of criminal intent. Thus, it can be said that this book provides partial to good understanding of the psychological behavior as well. Although, Lombroso focused mainly on the physical organs and the social behavior of the criminals in the initial editions of his work, as psychology was involved in both the above aspects, he touched it subtly. However, when he moved to other editions expanding on the previous works, he brought more psychology related aspects. As discussed above, and even validated by the translators, Lombroso seems to have taken the stance that criminal intent could be due to physical defects, social as well as psychological factors. References “Cesare Lombroso.” (2004). Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Cesare_Lombroso.aspx Falk, G. (n. d.). Cesare. Retrieved from: http://jbuff.com/c070804.htm Gabriel, E. (2008). Lombroso in All His Complexity. Retrieved from: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14096 Lombroso, C. (2006). Criminal Man. (M. Gibson and N. H. Rafter, Trans.). Duke University Press. Mannheim, H. (1972). Pioneers in criminology. Patterson Smith. Rafter, N. (n. d.). Cesare Lombroso and the origins of Criminology: Rethinking Criminological tradition. Retrieved from: http://www.farum.it/publifarumv/n/01/pdf/Rafter.pdf Read More